Which British explorer was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe?

Francis Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe.

Drake’s expedition left England in 1577 with five ships, but only the Golden Hind completed the entire voyage with him aboard. He crossed the Atlantic, passed through the Strait of Magellan, sailed north along the Pacific coast of the Americas, and then crossed the Pacific and Indian oceans before rounding the Cape of Good Hope.

The Golden Hind returned to Plymouth on 26 September 1580, nearly three years after departure. Drake brought back valuable spices and captured Spanish treasure, making the voyage both a geographical achievement and a major privateering success against England’s rival.

Drake was not the first person to lead a circumnavigation: that distinction belongs to the Magellan expedition, completed by Juan Sebastián Elcano in 1522. Drake was the first Englishman to accomplish it, and Queen Elizabeth I knighted him aboard the Golden Hind in 1581.